Multi-version shaders

ABSTRACT

Described herein are techniques for generating a stitched shader program. The techniques include identifying a set of shader programs to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set includes at least one multiversion shader program that includes a first version of instructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number of resources that is different than a second number of resources used by the second version of instructions. The techniques also include combining the set of shader programs to form the stitched shader program. The techniques further include determining a number of resources for the stitched shader program. The techniques also include based on the determined number of resources, modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program to, when executed, execute either the first version of instructions, or the second version of instructions.

BACKGROUND

Ray tracing is a type of graphics rendering technique in which simulatedrays of light are cast to test for object intersection and pixels arecolored based on the result of the ray cast. Ray tracing iscomputationally more expensive than rasterization-based techniques, butproduces more physically accurate results. Improvements in ray tracingoperations are constantly being made.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description,given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example device in which one or morefeatures of the disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the device, illustrating additional detailsrelated to execution of processing tasks on the accelerated processingdevice, according to an example;

FIG. 3 illustrates a ray tracing pipeline for rendering graphics using aray tracing technique, according to an example;

FIG. 4 illustrates a technique for generating a multi-version stitchedshader program, according to examples;

FIG. 5 illustrates a technique for compiling shader programs to generateone or more compiled multiversion shaders, according to an example; and

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method for generating a stitched shaderprogram from a set of shader programs including at least onemultiversion shader program, according to an example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are techniques for generating a stitched shaderprogram. The techniques include identifying a set of shader programs toinclude in the stitched shader program, wherein the set includes atleast one multiversion shader program that includes a first version ofinstructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the firstversion of instructions uses a first number of resources that isdifferent than a second number of resources used by the second versionof instructions. The techniques also include combining the set of shaderprograms to form the stitched shader program. The techniques furtherinclude determining a number of resources for the stitched shaderprogram. The techniques also include, based on the determined number ofresources, modifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversionshader program to, when executed, execute either the first version ofinstructions, or the second version of instructions.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example device 100 in which one or morefeatures of the disclosure can be implemented. The device 100 includes,for example, a computer, a gaming device, a handheld device, a set-topbox, a television, a mobile phone, or a tablet computer. The device 100includes a processor 102, a memory 104, a storage 106, one or more inputdevices 108, and one or more output devices 110. The device 100 alsooptionally includes an input driver 112 and an output driver 114. It isunderstood that the device 100 includes additional components not shownin FIG. 1.

In various alternatives, the processor 102 includes a central processingunit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a CPU and GPU located onthe same die, or one or more processor cores, wherein each processorcore can be a CPU or a GPU. In various alternatives, the memory 104 islocated on the same die as the processor 102, or is located separatelyfrom the processor 102. The memory 104 includes a volatile ornon-volatile memory, for example, random access memory (RAM), dynamicRAM, or a cache.

The storage 106 includes a fixed or removable storage, for example, ahard disk drive, a solid state drive, an optical disk, or a flash drive.The input devices 108 include, without limitation, a keyboard, a keypad,a touch screen, a touch pad, a detector, a microphone, an accelerometer,a gyroscope, a biometric scanner, or a network connection (e.g., awireless local area network card for transmission and/or reception ofwireless IEEE 802 signals). The output devices 110 include, withoutlimitation, a display device 118, a speaker, a printer, a hapticfeedback device, one or more lights, an antenna, or a network connection(e.g., a wireless local area network card for transmission and/orreception of wireless IEEE 802 signals).

The input driver 112 communicates with the processor 102 and the inputdevices 108, and permits the processor 102 to receive input from theinput devices 108. The output driver 114 communicates with the processor102 and the output devices 110, and permits the processor 102 to sendoutput to the output devices 110. It is noted that the input driver 112and the output driver 114 are optional components, and that the device100 will operate in the same manner if the input driver 112 and theoutput driver 114 are not present. The output driver 114 includes anaccelerated processing device (“APD”) 116 which is coupled to a displaydevice 118. The APD 116 is configured to accept compute commands andgraphics rendering commands from processor 102, to process those computeand graphics rendering commands, and to provide pixel output to displaydevice 118 for display. As described in further detail below, the APD116 includes one or more parallel processing units configured to performcomputations in accordance with a single-instruction-multiple-data(“SIMD”) paradigm. Thus, although various functionality is describedherein as being performed by or in conjunction with the APD 116, invarious alternatives, the functionality described as being performed bythe APD 116 is additionally or alternatively performed by othercomputing devices having similar capabilities that are not driven by ahost processor (e.g., processor 102) and configured to provide(graphical) output to a display device 118. For example, it iscontemplated that any processing system that performs processing tasksin accordance with a SIMD paradigm can be configured to perform thefunctionality described herein. Alternatively, it is contemplated thatcomputing systems that do not perform processing tasks in accordancewith a SIMD paradigm performs the functionality described herein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the device 100, illustrating additionaldetails related to execution of processing tasks on the APD 116,according to an example. The processor 102 maintains, in system memory104, one or more control logic modules for execution by the processor102. The control logic modules include an operating system 120, a driver122, and applications 126. These control logic modules control variousfeatures of the operation of the processor 102 and the APD 116. Forexample, the operating system 120 directly communicates with hardwareand provides an interface to the hardware for other software executingon the processor 102. The driver 122 controls operation of the APD 116by, for example, providing an application programming interface (“API”)to software (e.g., applications 126) executing on the processor 102 toaccess various functionality of the APD 116. In some implementations,the driver 122 includes a just-in-time compiler that compiles programsfor execution by processing components (such as the SIMD units 138discussed in further detail below) of the APD 116. In otherimplementations, no just-in-time compiler is used to compile theprograms, and a normal application compiler compiles shader programs forexecution on the APD 116.

The APD 116 executes commands and programs for selected functions, suchas graphics operations and non-graphics operations that are suited forparallel processing and/or non-ordered processing. The APD 116 is usedfor executing graphics pipeline operations such as pixel operations,geometric computations, and rendering an image to display device 118based on commands received from the processor 102. The APD 116 alsoexecutes compute processing operations that are not related, or notdirectly related to graphics operations, such as operations related tovideo, physics simulations, computational fluid dynamics, or othertasks, based on commands received from the processor 102. The APD 116also executes compute processing operations that are related to raytracing-based graphics rendering.

The APD 116 includes compute units 132 that include one or more SIMDunits 138 that perform operations at the request of the processor 102 ina parallel manner according to a SIMD paradigm. The SIMD paradigm is onein which multiple processing elements share a single program controlflow unit and program counter and thus execute the same program but areable to execute that program with different data. In one example, eachSIMD unit 138 includes sixteen lanes, where each lane executes the sameinstruction at the same time as the other lanes in the SIMD unit 138 butexecutes that instruction with different data. Lanes can be switched offwith predication if not all lanes need to execute a given instruction.Predication can also be used to execute programs with divergent controlflow. More specifically, for programs with conditional branches or otherinstructions where control flow is based on calculations performed by anindividual lane, predication of lanes corresponding to control flowpaths not currently being executed, and serial execution of differentcontrol flow paths allows for arbitrary control flow. In animplementation, each of the compute units 132 can have a local L1 cache.In an implementation, multiple compute units 132 share a L2 cache.

The basic unit of execution in compute units 132 is a work-item. Eachwork-item represents a single instantiation of a program that is to beexecuted in parallel in a particular lane. Work-items can be executedtogether as a “wavefront” on a single SIMD processing unit 138. The SIMDnature of the SIMD processing unit 138 means that multiple work-itemsmay execute in parallel simultaneously. Work-items that are executedtogether in this manner on a single SIMD unit are part of the samewavefront. In some implementations or modes of operation, a SIMD unit138 executes a wavefront by executing each of the work-items of thewavefront simultaneously. In other implementations or modes ofoperation, a SIMD unit 138 executes different sub-sets of the work-itemsin a wavefront in parallel. In an example, a wavefront includes 64work-items and the SIMD unit 138 has 16 lanes (where each lane is a unitof the hardware sized to execute a single work-item). In this example,the SIMD unit 138 executes the wavefront by executing 16 work-itemssimultaneously, 4 times.

One or more wavefronts are included in a “workgroup,” which includes acollection of work-items designated to execute the same program. Anapplication or other entity (a “host”) requests that shader programs beexecuted by the accelerated processing device 116, specifying a “size”(number of work-items), and the command processor 136 generates one ormore workgroups to execute that work. The number of workgroups, numberof wavefronts in each workgroup, and number of work-items in eachwavefront correlates to the size of work requested by the host. In someimplementations, the host may specify the number of work-items in eachworkgroup for a particular request to perform work, and thisspecification dictates the number of workgroups generated by the commandprocessor 136 to perform the work. As stated above, the commandprocessor 136 dispatches workgroups to one or more compute units 132,which execute the appropriate number of wavefronts to complete theworkgroups.

The parallelism afforded by the compute units 132 is suitable forgraphics related operations such as pixel value calculations, vertextransformations, and other graphics operations. Thus in some instances,a graphics pipeline 134, which accepts graphics processing commands fromthe processor 102, provides computation tasks to the compute units 132for execution in parallel.

The accelerated processing device 116 implements ray tracing, which is atechnique that renders a 3D scene by testing for intersection betweensimulated light rays and objects in a scene. Much of the work involvedin ray tracing is performed by programmable shader programs, executed onthe SIMD units 138 in the compute units 132, as described in additionaldetail below.

Shader programs to be executed on the APD 116 are compiled from sourcecode into machine instructions. Such compilation may occur in one ormore stages. In some examples, an offline compiler 140 (where “offline”is differentiated from a runtime compiler 144) compiles the shaderprograms to an intermediate format and, as the application 126 is beingloaded for execution, a runtime compiler 144 compiles the shaderprograms to a final format with machine instructions. Some examples ofthe intermediate format include LLVM IR (low level virtual machineintermediate representation) or HSAIL (heterogeneous system architectureintermediate language). In some implementations, a runtime linker 142links multiple compiled shader programs into larger composite or“stitched” shader programs. In some situations, the offline compiler 140is present on the computer system of an application developer, but noton a computer system of an end user that runs the application. In somesituations, the runtime compiler 144 and linker 142 are not present onthe same computer system as an offline compiler 140. Thus although thetwo compilers and the linker (offline compiler 140, runtime compiler144, and linker 142) are illustrated together in a memory 104, it shouldbe understood that systems including only one or two of these componentsalso fall within the scope of this disclosure. In some implementations,the offline compiler 140, runtime compiler 144, and linker 142 areembodied as software programs that execute on a processor such asprocessor 102.

Some workloads involving shader programs are complex, involving theexecution of different shader programs based on the results ofconditional evaluations whose results can vary with each instance ofexecution. In the example of ray tracing, one ray may hit a firsttriangle having a first material and thus requiring a first materialshader, and another ray may hit a second triangle having a secondmaterial and thus requiring a second material shader. Moreover, in someinstances, it is only possible to determine at runtime, the specificshader programs that can be executed for a particular application. Insuch situations (or in various other situations), multiple shaderprograms are compiled and then stitched together into a larger shaderprogram by the linker 142. In such a stitched shader program, theindividual shader programs that comprise the stitched shader program maystill be referred to herein as shader programs or shaders, or mayalternatively be referred to as “sub-shader programs.” With a stitchedshader program, at various stages of execution, the stitched shaderprogram selects one of several sub-shader programs to execute. In otherwords, such a stitched shader program includes multiple shader programsin a group of alternative shader programs, and each work-items selectsone the alternative shader programs. This selection is accomplished byincluding each of the sub-shader programs in the stitched shader programand including instructions for selection of a shader program based onexecution-time criteria. In an example, a switch statement evaluates avariable and jumps to a particular sub-shader program based on the valuestored in the variable. Any other technically feasible mechanism toselect a particular sub-shader program may alternatively or additionallybe used.

One example workload for which a stitched shader program may be usefulis ray tracing. FIG. 3 illustrates a ray tracing pipeline 300 forrendering graphics using a ray tracing technique, according to anexample. The ray tracing pipeline 300 provides an overview of operationsand entities involved in rendering a scene utilizing ray tracing. A raygeneration shader 302, any hit shader 306, closest hit shader 310, andmiss shader 312 are shader-implemented stages that represent ray tracingpipeline stages whose functionality is performed by shader programsexecuting in the SIMD units 138. Any of the specific shader programs ateach particular shader-implemented stage are defined byapplication-provided code (i.e., by code provided by an applicationdeveloper that is pre-compiled by an application compiler such ascompiler 140 and/or compiled by a compiler in the driver 122 such asruntime compiler 144 and linker 142). The ray trace stage 304 performs aray intersection test to determine whether a ray hits a triangle. Theray trace stage 304 may be performed by a shader program executing inthe SIMD units 138 or by fixed function hardware configured to performray intersection tests.

The various programmable shader stages (ray generation shader 302, anyhit shader 306, closest hit shader 310, miss shader 312) are implementedas shader programs that execute on the SIMD units 138.

The ray tracing pipeline 300 operates in the following manner. One ormore compute units 132 execute a ray generation shader 302. The raygeneration shader 302 requests the ray trace stage 304 to perform one ormore ray intersection tests. Each ray intersection test defines anorigin and direction for a ray trace operation, which determines whetherthe ray hits one or more triangles or whether the ray does not hit anytriangle.

The ray trace stage 304 identifies one or more triangles intersected bya ray for a ray intersection test, or, if no triangles are intersectedby the ray up to a given distance, determines that the ray does not hitany triangles (i.e., that the ray “misses”). The ray trace stage 304 maybe implemented in any technically feasible manner. In one example, theray trace stage 304 is implemented as a shader program executing on oneor more compute units 132. In another example, the ray trace stage 304is implemented as fixed function hardware.

Ray trace stage 304 triggers execution of a closest hit shader 310 forthe triangle closest to the origin of the ray that the ray hits, or, ifno triangles were hit, triggers a miss shader. A typical use for theclosest hit shader 310 is to color a material based on a texture for thematerial. A typical use for the miss shader 312 is to color a pixel witha color set by a skybox. It should be understood that the shaderprograms defined for the closest hit shader 310 and miss shader 312 mayimplement a wide variety of techniques for coloring pixels and/orperforming other operations.

A typical way in which ray generation shaders 302 generate rays is witha technique referred to as backwards ray tracing. In backwards raytracing, the ray generation shader 302 generates a ray having an originat the point corresponding to a camera. The point at which the rayintersects a plane defined to correspond to the screen defines the pixelon the screen whose color the ray is being used to determine. If the rayhits an object, that pixel is colored based on the closest hit shader310. If the ray does not hit an object, the pixel is colored based onthe miss shader 312. Multiple rays may be cast per pixel, with the finalcolor of the pixel being determined by some combination (e.g., anaverage) of the colors determined for each of the rays of the pixel. Anyparticular ray generation shader 302 (or any other shader) may alsospecify that an any hit shader 306 is to be executed for any of the hitsbetween a ray and a triangle, even if such hits are not the closest hit.

It is possible for the closest hit shader 310 and/or miss shader 312 tospawn their own rays, which enter the ray tracing pipeline 300 at theray test point. These rays can be used for any purpose. One common useis to implement environmental lighting or reflections. In an example,when a closest hit shader 310 is invoked, the closest hit shader 310spawns rays in various directions. For each object, or a light, hit bythe spawned rays, the closest hit shader 310 adds the lighting intensityand color at the hit location to the pixel corresponding to the closesthit shader 310 that spawned the rays. It should be understood thatalthough some examples of ways in which the various components of theray tracing pipeline 300 can be used to render a scene have beendescribed, any of a wide variety of techniques may alternatively beused.

It should be understood that any shader program written for the closesthit shader stage 310, miss shader stage 312, or any hit shader stage306, may implement any of the operations described elsewhere herein asbeing performed by shader programs written for the ray generation stage302. For example, in addition to spawning new rays to be provided to theray test point for testing at the ray trace stage 304, such shaderprograms may specify whether misses or hits should spawn additional raysto trace (starting again at the ray test point), what shader programs toexecute for any such additional rays, how to combine the color and/orluminosity values generated by such additional shader programexecutions, and any other operations that could be performed by a raygeneration shader 302.

The ray tracing pipeline may be implemented as a stitched shader. Morespecifically, each of the shader programs for the different stages ofthe ray tracing pipeline may be compiled (e.g., by compiler 140 and/orruntime compiler 144) and linked together (e.g., by linker 142) into asingle stitched shader program, with the compiler or linker also includetransition and control instructions that manage that control flowbetween the different stages of the ray tracing pipeline as well asprovide inputs and export outputs from the ray tracing pipeline.

It is possible for there to be multiple versions of shader programs fora given ray tracing pipeline stage. In one example, an applicationincludes a large number of possible shader programs for the closest hitshader stage 310 (which may be referred to as “material shaders” or“material shader programs”). Each such shader program is associated witha different material. One material shader program may includeinstructions for both diffuse lighting and specular lighting, and adifferent material shader program may include instructions for specularlighting, but not diffuse lighting. The different material shaderprograms of an application may differ in a large variety of other ways,and an application may include a very large number of different materialshader programs. In some implementations, the stitched shader programincludes all shader programs to run as part of every stage of a raytracing pipeline 300, and also includes instructions for appropriatecontrol flow transfer between the different stages of the ray tracingpipeline 300.

One characteristic of a stitched shader program is that the resourceusage for the entire stitched shader program is based on the maximumresource usage of all shader programs included in the stitched shaderprogram. More specifically, shader programs are launched as “kernels” onthe APD 116. A kernel specifies a particular shader program (e.g., astitched shader program), as well as a number of work-items that will beexecuted as part of the kernel. In the ray tracing pipeline 300, eachwork-item would correspond to one ray generation shader execution (andthus the subsequent executions of the different stages of the raytracing pipeline 300). The scheduler 136 breaks the kernel up intoworkgroups and assigns workgroups to one or more compute units 132 forexecution. The workgroups of a kernel begin execution, execute theirinstructions, and then terminate execution.

The rate at which a shader program executes is dependent on the numberof resources consumed by each unit of execution of the shader program.The term “unit of execution” may mean a workgroup, wavefront, orwork-item. More specifically, there is a fixed number of computingresources, such as registers, cache memory, or higher level memory localto a compute unit 132. A register is typically the lowest level storagespace available to execution units of a processor and instructions ofthe processor typically refer to registers by name (e.g., “r1” forregister 1), instead of address as is typically the case for memory.Thus the number of units of execution that can execute concurrently isdetermined by the amount of such resources consumed by each unit ofexecution. In an example, a compute unit 132 includes 1000 registers andeach wavefront of a shader program consumes 100 registers. Thus 10wavefronts of the shader program could be executed concurrently on acompute unit 132 (assuming a sufficient number of other resources areavailable). If a kernel required 100 wavefronts to be executed, then ifthat kernel were to execute in one compute unit 132, 10 iterations of 10wavefronts each would be required to execute. Modifying the registerusage can potentially improve execution speed. In some situations,reducing the register usage improves the number of wavefronts that canconcurrently execute and leads to improvement in execution time assumingthe reduced register usage does not adversely impact the execution timeof the wavefront. There may be other situations where lettingcomputationally intensive shaders use more registers can improve theindividual runtime of a wavefront that in turn helps the overallexecution time.

A stitched shader program has resource usage requirements equal to thehighest resource usage requirements of all shader programs from whichthe stitched shader program is formed. This is because resources areallocated upon launching a shader program as a kernel, and do notdynamically vary as execution of the kernel proceeds. In an example, ifthere are 10 different material shaders, and the material shader withthe highest register usage requires ten registers, then the stitchedshader program will require at least ten registers even though the othermaterial shaders require a smaller number of registers.

For these reasons, in a stitched shader program, execution of particularsub-shader programs can be slowed down due to the resource requirementsof other sub-shader programs in the stitched shader program. Techniquesare therefore provided to reduce the impact of the relatively highresource requirements of one or more sub-shader programs on theperformance of other sub-shader programs in a stitched shader program.Briefly, the techniques involve compiling and generating multipleversions of individual sub-shader programs and, at link time, selectingan appropriate version based on the resource requirements of the othersub-shader programs in the stitched shader program.

FIG. 4 illustrates a technique for compiling a multi-version stitchedshader program, according to examples. Specifically, FIG. 4 illustratesan example in which a compiler 404 compiles shader program source 402 tocompiled versions of the individual shader programs 406/408, and then alinker 420 links those compiled version of the shader programs into astitched shader program 422.

The shader source 402 represents source code for different shaderprograms (three shader programs are illustrated in FIG. 4). In someexamples, this source code 402 is provided by an application developerand the compiler 404 is an application compiler that is used atdevelopment time. In such examples, the compiler 404 is the offlinecompiler 140 of FIG. 2. In other examples, the compiler 404 is a runtimecompiler 144.

The compiled multiversion shader program 406 includes instructions forat least two versions of a corresponding shader source 402. Morespecifically, for at least one portion of at least one shader source402, the compiler 404 generates two different versions of instructionsand includes both versions in the compiled multiversion shader program406. The two different versions of instructions use different numbers ofa resource. The compiled multiversion shader program 406 also includesversion selection instruction placeholders 410 and glue instructionplaceholders 412. Some example techniques for generating compiledmultiversion shader programs 406 are provided with respect to FIG. 5.

The linker 420 generates the stitched shader 422 from one or morecompiled multiversion shaders 406 and one or more compiled shaders 408(which are not multi-version). In brief, the linker 420 combines theinstructions of the one or more compiled multiversion shaders 406 andthe one or more compiled shaders 408, selects one or more versions ofinstructions of the compiled multiversion shaders 406 to use, andmodifies the version selection instruction placeholders 410 and the glueinstruction placeholders 412 to cause the stitched shader 422, whenexecuted, to execute the selected versions of instructions and not theunselected versions of instructions.

The version selection instruction placeholders 410 are placeholders forversion selection instructions 428 in the stitched shader 422. In someexamples, placeholders are NOP instructions. In other examples,placeholders are default instructions configured to select a defaultversion.

The version selection instructions 428 in the stitched shader 422 areconfigured to, when executed, select one of the versions instructions ofthe compiled multiversion shader 406. In an example, the compiledmultiversion shader 406 includes two versions of instructionscorresponding to the compiled multiversion shader 406. The versionselection instructions 428 includes a NOP instruction (no-op, aninstruction that, when executed, performs no operations) and a jumpinstruction. The NOP instruction is before the first version ofinstructions and thus allows that first version of instructions toexecute. The jump instruction is placed after the first version ofinstructions and targets instructions after the second version ofinstructions, so that when executed, the second version of instructionsis skipped. After selecting a particular version of instructions, thelinker 420 modifies the version selection instruction placeholders 410,to generate the version selection instructions 428. When executed, theversion selection instructions 428 cause execution control to flow tothe selected version of instructions instead of the one or morenon-selected versions of instructions.

The compiled multiversion shader 406 also includes glue instructionplaceholders 412. The glue instruction placeholders 412 are placeholdersfor glue instructions 430 in the stitched shader 422. In an example,placeholders include one or more NOP instructions. In another example,the placeholders are default versions of the glue instructions. Thepurpose of the glue instructions 430 is to cause each version ofinstructions to behave the same way in terms of what inputs the versionconsumes and what outputs the version provides. In an example, a firstversion uses one register and a second version uses two registers. Thefirst version leaves the output in the one register, named R1, and thesecond version leaves the output in the second register, named R2.Instructions subsequent to the two versions input the value in registerR2. If the stitched shader 422 is configured to select the firstversion, then the glue instructions 430 include an instruction to movethe value from R1 to R2, so that subsequent instructions will receivethe intended input.

The placeholder instructions, the version selection instructionplaceholders 410 and the glue instruction placeholders 412, are includedin compiled multiversion shaders 406 due to the nature of thecompilation and linking process, as well as the timing with which thecontours of the stitched shader 422 (namely which shader programs areincluded) is determined. More specifically, compilation of shader source402 occurs in a manner that generates machine-specific instructions, ordevice-independent instructions that are laid out in a memory addressspace. Instructions that transfer control flow within a compiled shaderprogram (either the compiled multiversion shader program 406 or acompiled shader program 408), such as jumps and branches, thereforerefer to memory addresses instead of labels. The placeholders exist toallow for the linker 420 to make appropriate modifications to select aparticular version of instructions without having to recalculate thesememory addresses. For example, conversion of a NOP to a jump or a jumpto a NOP does not change the total number of instructions and thereforedoes not require a recalculation of the memory addresses. The presenceof multiple versions of instructions in a single compiled multiversionshader 406 also allows the linker 420 to operate simply by changing afew instructions rather than having to remove large amounts ofinstructions and recalculate memory addresses. The above features allowthe linker 420 to operate quickly, at runtime when an application isloaded. This quick linking assists in situations where the specificshaders to be included in the stitched shader 422 may not be known untilruntime. In an example, an application developer may develop a largenumber of possible material shaders that could potentially be used in anapplication. However, the application does not determine which possiblematerial shaders are actually used by assets that are to be used untilthe application is loaded, at which point the application examines theassets and identifies specific material shaders. The linker 420 thencombines compiled versions of those shaders into the stitched shader 422and performs the other operations described herein, such as modifyingthe version selection instruction placeholders 410 and glue instructionplaceholders 412.

Note that the concept of “versions” for the different versions ofinstructions for a particular shader is different than the concept ofversions for shaders at a particular stage of the ray tracing pipeline(or whatever other context the techniques described herein are used in).More specifically, the concept of different versions of instructions fora particular shader is one in which the linker 420 selects a particularversion of instructions of a compiled multiversion shader 406 based onthe resource usage of other shaders to be included in a stitched shader422. Once the linker 420 identifies which versions of instructions toinclude, the linker 420 modifies the placeholder instructions so thatthe selected version will execute in the stitched shader 422 when thecorresponding shader in that stitched shader 422 is to execute. Eventhough multiple sets of instructions are included in the stitched shader422, at runtime, only one version of instructions—the version selectedby the linker 420—can execute. The reason that the different versions ofinstructions are included in the multiversion shader instructions 424 isthat, as stated above, the linker 420 is able to perform such selectionin a relatively simple manner, by varying the version selectioninstruction placeholders 410 and the glue instruction placeholders 412.The concept of different versions of shaders for a single pipeline isthat there are different runtime options for a particular stage of thatpipeline. For example, it is possible for a ray to hit triangles havingdifferent materials. Thus each such alternative shader has thecapability of being executed at runtime.

In linking the compiled shaders into the stitched shader 422, for eachregion for which alternative versions exist, the linker 420 selects oneof the versions of instructions. Then the linker 420 modifies theversion selection instruction placeholders 410 and the glue instructionplaceholders 412 so that when the stitched shader 422 is executed (e.g.,in the APD 116), the stitched shader 422 executes one of thosealternative versions. Any technically feasible technique can be used bythe linker 420 to select a version of instructions.

In one example of a technique for the linker 420 to select a version ofinstructions, the linker 420 first identifies the set of shaders to beincluded in the stitched shader 422. In one example, the application 126instructs the linker 420 regarding which shaders are to be included inthe stitched shader 422. Although an application 126 may include a largenumber of shaders that could possibly be used during execution, it ispossible that the application 126 only knows exactly which shaders aregoing to be used during execution after examining data available atruntime. In an example, scene metadata indicates a list of assets to beincluded in a scene. The application 126 extracts a list of shaders fromthe list of assets and thereby determines that such shaders are to beincluded in the stitched shader 422.

The linker 420 examines the resource usage for all of the shaders in theset of shaders to be included in the stitched shader 422. As describedelsewhere herein, each shader is capable of execution using one or morenumbers of resources (e.g., a multiversion shader is capable ofexecution in different “modes,” with different numbers of resources anda single version shader is capable of execution in a single mode, withone number of resources). The linker identifies the lowest number ofresources that all shaders are capable of executing at, and generatesthe stitched shader 422 in a manner that selects the appropriateversion(s) of the different versions of instructions by editing theversion selection instruction placeholders 410 and the glue instructionplaceholders 412 as appropriate. A version of instructions or shader iscapable of executing with a higher number of resources than required,but is not capable of executing with a lower number of resources thanrequired. For example, a shader that requires ten registers is capableof executing when allocated eleven registers, but not when allocatednine registers.

In an example, two shaders are to be included in a stitched shader 422.A first shader is a single version shader and requires ten resources. Asecond shader is a multiversion shader. A first version of themultiversion shader requires sixteen resources and a second version ofthe multiversion shader requires ten resources. Because ten is thelowest number that both shaders can operate at, the linker 420 selectsthe number ten and modifies the version selection instructionplaceholders 410 and the glue instruction placeholders 412 of themultiversion shader to select the version of instructions that executeswith ten resources, instead of the version of instructions that executeswith sixteen resources. In another example, a first shader requires tenresources and a second, multiversion shader includes a first version ofinstructions that requires twelve resources and a second version ofinstructions that requires sixteen resources. In this example, thelinker 420 selects the number twelve and modifies the version selectioninstruction placeholders 410 and the glue instruction placeholders 412of the multiversion shader to select the version of instructions thatexecutes with twelve resources, instead of the version of instructionsthat executes with sixteen resources.

It should be understood that a compiled multiversion shader 406 may havemultiple regions, which each may be multiversion or single versionregions. A region is simply a portion of a multiversion shader 406 thatis smaller than the entire multiversion shader 406. In this situation,the multiversion shader 406 is capable of executing using any of thenumbers of resources designated by the individual regions.

In a modified technique, the linker 420 examines performancecharacteristics of the different shaders and, based on the performancecharacteristics, selects a particular number of resources for thestitched shader 422 based on the performance characteristics. Asdescribed elsewhere herein, this selected number of resources is atleast as high as the lowest number of resources that all shaders to beincluded in the stitched shader 422 are capable of operating at.

In an example, the performance characteristics include estimatedexecution times for the single version shaders and regions as well asfor the different versions of instructions of multiversion shaders. Morespecifically, the linker 420 estimates total execution times associatedwith particular versions of instructions for multiversion shaders. Theperformance characteristics also include estimated slowdown factor forthe stitched shader 422 at different resource numbers being considered.In an example, the slowdown factor is based on the degree to whichoccupancy of the stitched shader 422 suffers when run with highernumbers of resources required in the APD 116. In an example, if tworesource numbers being considered are five and ten, then the slowdownfactor is a factor of two, since half as many instances of the stitchedshader 422 may be executed concurrently in a given execution unit. Inanother example, the slowdown factor is based on how much the individualruntime of a workitem is affected at different resource usages. A shaderworkitem may be individually faster when using more registers. In otherinstances, the slowdown may be a combination of both concurrency andindividual runtime.

The linker 420 compares total execution times of the stitched shader 422at different numbers of resources with the slowdown factors associatedwith the increases in resource usage and selects the resource usage thatproduces the best overall performance. In an example, there are twopossible resource usage numbers: eight registers and twelve registers.Selecting twelve registers would result in a slowdown factor of ⅔(because only two thirds as many execution instances such as wavefrontscould execute concurrently) but selecting twelve registers reduces theoverall execution time of the stitched shader time by one half, andtherefore the linker 420 selects twelve registers as the number ofregisters to use for the stitched shader 422. Any other technicallyfeasible technique for selecting a number of resources to use for astitched shader 422 could alternatively be used.

Part of compilation, by the compiler 404, is determining whether anyparticular shader program should be compiled as a multiversion shader406 or as a non-multiversion shader 408. For a given shader program thatthe compiler 404 has determined should be compiled as a multiversionshader 406, the compiler 404 also determines the number of versions ofinstructions to generate and the number of resources to target for eachversion.

FIG. 5 illustrates a technique for compiling shader programs to generateone or more compiled multiversion shaders, according to an example.According to the technique, a compiler 404 compiles one or more shadersources 402 to generate initial compiled shaders 502. The compiler 404performs this compilation step without generating any multiversionshaders, in order to identify the resource usage for the shaders. Theinitial compiled shaders 502 therefore do not include multiversionshaders. The compiler 404 determines, for each region 506, the number ofresources that particular region needs. The compiler 404 may use anytechnically feasible technique to divide compiled shaders 502 intoregions. A region is a sub-set or whole of a shader program. In someexamples, resources are registers, but may be any other type ofexecution resources.

The compiler 404 sets a resource usage threshold and determines whethereach region 506 is below or above the set threshold. The compiler 404recompiles the shader sources 402 based on the determination of whichregions 506 are above the threshold. For a region 506 having resourceusage above the threshold, the compiler 404 recompiles that region 506as a compiled multiversion shader 406 that includes two or more versionsfor the region 506. One of the versions is a version unmodified by aresource use reduction technique that would reduce the resource usage ascompared with the version The other version is the version that ismodified by the compiler to reduce resource usage to less than or equalto the threshold. The compiler 404 includes each of those generatedversions into the compiled multiversion shader 406. For a region 506having resource usage below or equal to the threshold, the compiler 404retains the version of that region 506 as compiled in an initialcompiled shader 502. For shader programs where all regions 506 haveresource usage below the threshold, the compiler 404 marks the initialcompiled shader 502 as the compiled shader 408 to be included in thestitched shader program 422. For shader programs where at least oneregion 506 has resource usage above the threshold, the compiler 404recompiles the shader program as a compiled multiversion shader 506 thatincludes at least two versions of the at least one region 506 that hasresource usage above the threshold. At least one version has resourceusage less than or equal to the threshold and at least one other versionhas resource usage above the threshold. At least one such version may bean unmodified version of the region 506, that is, the version of theregion in the initial compiled shader 506.

One example resource is number of registers used. One example techniquefor reducing the number of registers used by a region or shader isregister spilling. In register spilling, the compiler 404 begins with afirst form of compiled instructions that uses a number of registersabove a threshold. Then the compiler 404 identifies a subset of thenumber of registers to “spill” into memory (such as a local memory inthe compute unit 132). The compiler 404 then converts instructions thatuse this subset of registers into instructions that read from and writeto memory. The result is that the remaining set of instructions uses anumber of registers less than or equal to the threshold. It should benoted that the difference between “registers” and “memory” is thatregisters are low latency but low capacity memory elements while“memory” has a higher latency but higher capacity than registers.

Although a particular technique has been described to reduce the numberof registers below a threshold, any technically feasible technique forreducing registers below a threshold may be used. The resource that isanalyzed by the compiler 404 for generating multiversion shaders mayalso be a resource other than registers, in which case any othertechnically feasible technique to reduce such registers may be used.

Part of generating the multiversion shaders includes determining thethreshold that triggers generation of a multiversion shader 406 from ashader source 402. Any technically feasible technique for determiningthis threshold may be used. In one example, the compiler 404 analyzesall compiled shaders for an application 126 to obtain initial resourceusage for each such compiled shader. The compiler 404 also obtains athreshold percentage, which can be pre-programmed. The compiler 404identifies the lowest resource usage number such that the percentage ofall compiled shaders having at most that resource usage number is at orabove the threshold percentage. In an example, an application includesten shaders and the threshold percentage is 90%. Eight of the shadersuse ten registers. A ninth shader uses twelve registers. A tenthregister uses fifteen registers. The compiler 404 identifies the numbertwelve as the threshold number of resources, because 90% of the shadershave register usage at or below twelve. If the threshold percentage were80%, then the compiler 404 would identify the number ten as thethreshold number of resources, because 80% of the shaders have registerusage at or below ten. In response to identifying this threshold numberof resources, the compiler 404 would recompile each of the shadershaving a greater number of resource usage to generate a compiledmultiversion shader 406, in accordance with the techniques describedherein.

In a more general technique, the compiler 404 generates multiversionshaders 406 as follows. The compiler ranks the shaders by performanceimpact. Performance impact may be determined based on hints from theuser, based on information obtained by running the shaders, or throughany other technique for measuring performance impact. Then, shaders arecompiled with versions based on the resource usage of all shaders thatare compiled. In some implementations, the performance impact ranksaffect how or whether the shaders are converted to multiversion shaders406. The rankings based on performance impact may assign a performancescore based on the total measured or estimated runtime of the shaderwhen run as part of an application. In some implementations, shadersranked as having “low” (below a first score threshold) performanceimpact simply have their registers reduced, with no multiversion shaders406 generated. In some implementations, shaders ranked as having “high”(above a second score threshold, where the second score is higher thanthe first score) performance impact are compiled as multiversion shaders406 so that at link time, the linker can select an appropriate versionbased on the other shaders that are to be linked together. In someimplementations, shaders having “high” and “middle” performance impact(where middle is between the first and second thresholds) are bothcompiled as multiversion shaders, but shaders having a high performanceimpact do not have as much of a resource reduction as shaders having amiddle performance impact.

It should be understood that throughout the present disclosure, theversions of instructions are different “versions” in the sense that thedifferent versions have different resource utilization. However,different versions of the same region of a shader program perform thesame function. In other words, when the compiler 404 generates multipleversions of instructions for the same region, the compiler generates twodifferent sets of instructions that perform the same operations on thesame set of inputs to generate the same set of outputs. The differencebetween two versions generated for the same region 506 is in the numberof resources used by a particular version.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method 600 for generating a stitchedshader program from a set of shader programs including at least onemultiversion shader program, according to an example. Although describedwith respect to the system of FIGS. 1-5, it should be understood thatany system, configured to perform the steps of the method 600 in anytechnically feasible order, falls within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

The method 600 begins at step 602, where a linker 420 identifies a setof shader programs to include in a stitched shader program 422. The setof shader programs includes a multiversion shader program. Some detailsfor identifying a set of shader programs to include in a stitched shaderprogram 422 are provided in the disclosure describing FIGS. 4 and 5,while other details may be found elsewhere herein. In someimplementations, a set of compiled shader programs, including at leastone multiversion shader program, are included with an applicationprogram and the linker 420 identifies a subset of those shader programsto combine at runtime into a stitched shader program for dispatch ontoan APD 116 for execution.

At step 604, the linker 420 combines the identified shader programs toform an initial stitched shader program. In addition to combining theshader programs, the linker 420 may also include other code that managescontrol flow between the shaders based. In an example, the stitchedshader program implements a ray tracing pipeline such as the example raytracing pipeline 300 of FIG. 3. The linker thus includes in the stitchedshader program instructions to control flow between the various stagesof the pipeline, which are implemented by the shader programs from whichthe stitched shader program is generated. There may be multipledifferent versions of shader programs for any given stage of the raytracing pipeline 300. In an example, because there may be many differentmaterials in a scene, there may be a wide variety of material shaderprograms to implement the closest hit shader stage 310, where selectionof a particular material shader for a given ray depends on the identityof the triangle that is hit by the ray.

At step 606, the linker 420 determines a number of resources for thestitched shader program to be allocated when executed. This analysis maybe performed in any technically feasible manner, and some exampledetails for determining the number of shaders are provided with respectto FIGS. 4 and 5.

At step 608, based on the determined number of resources, the linker 420modifies instructions of the multiversion shader program in the initialstitched shader program, to enable one version of instructions of themultiversion shader program. Details for modifying such instructions areprovided herein, for example with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5.

It should be understood that many variations are possible based on thedisclosure herein. Although features and elements are described above inparticular combinations, each feature or element can be used alonewithout the other features and elements or in various combinations withor without other features and elements.

The methods provided can be implemented in a general purpose computer, aprocessor, or a processor core. Suitable processors include, by way ofexample, a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, aconventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSPcore, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, anyother type of integrated circuit (IC), and/or a state machine. Suchprocessors can be manufactured by configuring a manufacturing processusing the results of processed hardware description language (HDL)instructions and other intermediary data including netlists (suchinstructions capable of being stored on a computer readable media). Theresults of such processing can be maskworks that are then used in asemiconductor manufacturing process to manufacture a processor whichimplements aspects of the embodiments.

The methods or flow charts provided herein can be implemented in acomputer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium for execution by a general purposecomputer or a processor. Examples of non-transitory computer-readablestorage mediums include a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory(RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magneticmedia such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-opticalmedia, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatiledisks (DVDs).

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for generating a stitched shaderprogram, the method comprising: identifying a set of shader programs toinclude in the stitched shader program, wherein the set of shaderprograms includes at least one multiversion shader program that includesa first version of instructions and a second version of instructions,wherein the first version of instructions uses a first number ofresources that is different than a second number of resources used bythe second version of instructions; combining the set of shader programsto form the stitched shader program, wherein the stitched shader programincludes instructions corresponding to the at least one multiversionshader program; determining a number of resources for the stitchedshader program; and based on the determined number of resources,modifying the instructions corresponding to the at least onemultiversion shader program to execute either the first version ofinstructions or the second version of instructions, when the at leastone multiversion shader is executed.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining the number of resources for the stitched shader programcomprises: identifying, as the number of resources, a lowest number ofresources that all shader programs of the set of shader programs arecapable of executing with.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein determiningthe number of resources for the stitched shader program comprises:selecting the number of resources based on performance characteristicsof the set of shader programs.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinmodifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shaderprogram comprises: modifying version selection instruction placeholders.5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the instructionscorresponding to the multiversion shader program comprises: modifyingglue instruction placeholders.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: compiling a first shader program to generate the at leastone multiversion shader program.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising: analyzing resource utilization of initial compiled shadersfor shader programs specified by an application to determine athreshold; and in response to determining that an initial compiledshader corresponding to the at least one multiversion shader programutilizes a number of resources above the threshold, generating the atleast one multiversion shader program.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinthe identifying the set of shader programs to include in the stitchedshader program is performed at runtime based on assets specified to beincluded in a scene for an application.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein: the first version of instructions and the second version ofinstructions perform the same operations on the same input to generatethe same output but utilize a different number of resources.
 10. Acomputing device configured to generate a stitched shader program, thecomputing device comprising: a memory; and a processor configured toexecute a linker, the linker configured to: identify a set of shaderprograms to include in the stitched shader program, wherein the set ofshader programs includes at least one multiversion shader program thatincludes a first version of instructions and a second version ofinstructions, wherein the first version of instructions uses a firstnumber of resources that is different than a second number of resourcesused by the second version of instructions; combine the set of shaderprograms to form the stitched shader program, wherein the stitchedshader program includes instructions corresponding to the multiversionshader program; determine a number of resources for the stitched shaderprogram; and based on the determined number of resources, modify theinstructions corresponding to the at least one multiversion shaderprogram to execute either the first version of instructions, or thesecond version of instructions, when the at least one multiversionshader is executed.
 11. The computing device of claim 10, whereindetermining the number of resources for the stitched shader programcomprises: identifying, as the number of resources, a lowest number ofresources that all shader programs of the set of shader programs arecapable of executing with.
 12. The computing device of claim 10, whereindetermining the number of resources for the stitched shader programcomprises: selecting the number of resources based on performancecharacteristics of the set of shader programs.
 13. The computing deviceof claim 10, wherein modifying the instructions corresponding to themultiversion shader program comprises: modifying version selectioninstruction placeholders.
 14. The computing device of claim 10, whereinmodifying the instructions corresponding to the multiversion shaderprogram comprises: modifying glue instruction placeholders.
 15. Thecomputing device of claim 10, further comprising a compiler configuredto: compile a first shader program to generate the at least onemultiversion shader program.
 16. The computing device of claim 15,wherein the compiler is further configured to: analyze resourceutilization of initial compiled shaders for shader programs specified byan application to determine a threshold; and in response to determiningthat an initial compiled shader corresponding to the at least onemultiversion shader program utilizes a number of resources above thethreshold, generate the at least one multiversion shader program. 17.The computing device of claim 10, wherein the identifying the set ofshader programs to include in the stitched shader program is performedat runtime based on assets specified to be included in a scene for anapplication.
 18. The computing device of claim 10, wherein: the firstversion of instructions and the second version of instructions performthe same operations on the same input to generate the same output bututilize a different number of resources.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to generate a stitched shader program,by: identifying a set of shader programs to include in the stitchedshader program, wherein the set of shader programs includes at least onemultiversion shader program that includes a first version ofinstructions and a second version of instructions, wherein the firstversion of instructions uses a first number of resources that isdifferent than a second number of resources used by the second versionof instructions; combining the set of shader programs to form thestitched shader program, wherein the stitched shader program includesinstructions corresponding to the multiversion shader program;determining a number of resources for the stitched shader program; andbased on the determined number of resources, modifying the instructionscorresponding to the at least one multiversion shader program to executeeither the first version of instructions, or the second version ofinstructions, when the at least one multiversion shader is executed. 20.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, further storinginstructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processorto: compile a first shader program to generate the at least onemultiversion shader program.